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Media Ecologies 67high-speed Internet access at home, the Internet can provide access toa huge amount of information related to their particular interests. Thechapters on gaming, creative production, and work describe some ofthe cases of kids who geek out on their interests and develop reputationand expertise within specialized knowledge communities. Geek credinvolves learning to navigate esoteric domains of knowledge and practiceand being able to participate in communities that traffic in these formsof expertise.Box 1.5 describes zalas, one highly expert participant in online knowledgecultures who has customized his media engagement in a way thatfocuses on developing deep expertise in a specific area of interest. Althoughvery few of the youths we spoke to exhibited the kind of informationalexpertise that zalas did, it was not uncommon to find young people whocustomized their media environments to facilitate access to specializedknowledge. For example, one of Heather Horst’s interviewees in her study“Silicon Valley Families” a fifteen-year-old boy who chose the pseudonym010101, discussed the way he keeps up with information about his interestin technology by creating a customized Google home page with variousRSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds so he can keep tabs on different sitesof interest. In addition to Slashdot, one of the most popular technologynews blogs featuring “news for nerds,” 010101 regularly reads a variety oftechnology websites specific to his interest, including MacRumors.com andEngadget.com. His sources of information are sites with high status withinthe tech geek community, where the credibility of technology informationis debated among people who identify as tech experts.Box 1.5 zalas, a Digital-Information VirtuosoMizuko ItoMy first encounter with zalas was through email, through an introductionfrom another anime fan. I was seeking information about my new study onfansubbing practices, and I was told that zalas was the person I should know.Initially, we corresponded over email, where I peppered him with questionsabout the fansub community. He seemed to have eyes and ears all across thevast web of the online fandom around anime, not just among the fansubcommunities. Apparently no question was too esoteric; he could come backwith information about the latest anime releases in Japan, the activities ofeven the most minor fansub groups, and the juiciest gossip on the online